News headlines in October 2011, page 26

The encampment of disenchanted young protesters in New York City's financial district has exposed growing anger around the United States over rising inequality and a stubborn jobs crisis.

Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has called for a speedy investigation into Sunday night's deadly clashes in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, that left at least 26 dead and more than 300 injured, mostly Coptic Christians.

Efforts by the government and thousands of volunteers in Argentina have succeeded in slashing the illiteracy rate to just 1.9 percent, with a goal to eliminate it completely within the next four years.

Food price volatility featuring high prices is likely to continue and probably increase next year, making poor farmers even more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity, the global report on food insecurity released Monday by the United Nations' three Rome-based food agencies predicts.

As Liberia gears up for Tuesday’s presidential and legislative elections, officials stationed near the border with Ivory Coast have expressed concern that insufficient border security - a problem highlighted by two recent cross-border attacks - could fuel electoral violence.

In the case of Libya surprisingly few have protested compared with, say, the war on Iraq. From right to left, human rights and peace movements as well as scores of intellectuals have -admittedly some of them more or less hesitantly- endorsed NATO countries’ intervention, mainly with reference to there being so little time and that a genocide on thousands of people were immanent. It’s hard to believe that they all love war, isn’t it?, writes Jan Oberg, director and co-founder of the Transnational Foundation (TFF) in Lund Sweden.

The Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) will hold its weeklong first-ever Global Forum on Sanitation and Hygiene in Mumbai, India, October 9 through October 14. Some 500 activists, business leaders, health professionals, governmental officials and others are expected to participate in the forum. ( www.wsscc-global-forum.org ).

As microcredit institutions - once touted as the vital ‘last mile’ in extending credit to poor rural women -fight a government backlash that has encouraged honest borrowers to turn defaulters, hopes for revival hinge on a new bill awaiting passage in India’s parliament.

Sitting in the shade of a small lemon tree in the German Colony area of Haifa, eight Palestinian activists began day two of an open-ended hunger strike Sunday, in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners who have been striking for nearly two weeks in protest against poor prison conditions and a lack of basic rights.

'On Saturday, we as a nation atoned for our sins. I as a Jew feel ashamed of myself. I'm asking for forgiveness,' declared Ron Hulday, mayor of this mixed city, immediately at the closing of the Day of Atonement.